{"id":1649,"date":"2014-12-31T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T17:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/?p=1649"},"modified":"2022-09-05T23:19:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T03:19:13","slug":"luke-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/luke-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter three<\/strong> continues Luke\u2019s parallel between John and Jesus. In the first two chapters we find the angelic announcements of the two, followed by their births, circumcisions \/ namings, and a brief account of their boyhoods. John\u2019s story always came first, then Jesus\u2019. Now, in chapter three, we find the beginning of their respective ministries. Again, Luke\u2019s pattern continues first with John, then Jesus.<\/p>

Unlike the other writers, Luke offered a couple of broad timeframes to identify the beginning of their ministries. John began before Jesus, since Jesus was baptized by John then sent into the wilderness (chapter four) before officially beginning to preach. Thus, Luke dated John\u2019s ministry (3:1-3) but only mentioned Jesus\u2019 approximate age (3:23). Luke used the timelines of six rulers to narrow down the year: Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, and Annas\/Caiaphas (3:1-2), though only \u201cthe fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar\u201d is precise. John began to minister at some point in A.D. 29 and baptized Jesus later that year, probably during the summer or fall, when Jesus would have been 32 years old. \u201cAbout 30 years old\u201d (3:23) is an accurate approximation. 1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>

As Malachi prophesied (4:5-6) and Gabriel promised (Luke 1:16-17), John\u2019s message had one main theme: the Messiah is coming so prepare your hearts<\/em>. Baptism was (and still is) a frequently-used method to identify oneself with a prophet\u2019s message, so John baptized many people who repented of their sin in light of Messiah\u2019s imminent arrival. It is interesting that one of the natural results of their clean hearts was the desire to do good works. John did not offer good works in place of repentance for sin but as further proof of repentance. Baptism is a single event, but good works are to be a believer\u2019s lifestyle.<\/p>

Luke ended this section with what seems to be an unimportant afterthought. Matthew began his story with Jesus\u2019 heritage. Why would Luke include it buried after his baptism? There are at least two reasons.<\/p>

First<\/strong>, whereas Matthew focused on Jesus\u2019 Jewish and royal line<\/em> (promoting Abraham and David), Luke focused on his human line<\/em>, which came solely through Mary. Although Mary is not named here, this is her family tree. Joseph became \u201cthe son of Heli\u201d (or \u201cEli\u201d) by marrying Heli\u2019s daughter; Joseph\u2019s father was Jacob (Matthew 1:16).<\/p>

Second<\/strong>, Luke traced Jesus all the way back to Adam, the direct creation of God, to encompass the entire human race. This emphasizes that Jesus was more than just Jewish<\/em>. Jesus\u2019 temptations, ministry, and sufferings would all affect him to the core of his humanity, and his work would be for all humans, not just the Jews. As we will see, Gentiles will receive much more attention in Luke than the other gospels, and Jesus\u2019 humanity \u2013 especially his weaknesses and sympathies \u2013 will be on full display. Luke placed the genealogy precisely at this point to remind us that Jesus was as human as those he came to save.<\/p>

\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Jesus\u2019 first Passover after his baptism, recorded in John 2:12-25, would have been in the spring of A.D. 30, following his 33rd birthday.\n

     <\/p>\n

    Harold Hoehner gives a thorough treatment of the dates for John\u2019s and Jesus\u2019 births, ministries, and deaths in his book, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ<\/em>. All dates offered here are based on Hoehner\u2019s research and conclusions. \u21a9<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Chapter three continues Luke\u2019s parallel between John and Jesus. In the first two chapters we find the angelic announcements of the two, followed by their births, circumcisions \/ namings, and a brief account of their boyhoods. John\u2019s story always came first, then Jesus\u2019. Now, in chapter three, we find the beginning of their respective ministries. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[37,38,114,40],"class_list":["post-1649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-studies","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-malachi","tag-matthew"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":2,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"Chapter three continues Luke\u2019s parallel between John and Jesus. In the first two chapters we find the angelic announcements of the two, followed by their births, circumcisions \/ namings, and a brief account of their boyhoods. John\u2019s story always came first, then Jesus\u2019. Now, in chapter three, we find the beginning of their respective ministries.…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}